Dhaka, Dec. 18 -- History of human beings is a history of being driven basically by collective interest, not by personal interest. Economists made us believe that we are driven only by personal interest, and act accordingly through profit maximization. It is time to restore our core identity by making businesses to serve society's needs first and foremost; profit cannot come at the expense of human well-being, and human life. Nowhere should that be more true than our health-which was enshrined by our leaders as a fundamental right when I was merely 6 years old, in the 1946 constitution of the World Health Organization.

It is tragic today that the pharmaceutical industry-which has been appropriately lauded for producing safe and effective...